John Henry Anderson was a Scottish magician who performed in Europe and the United States in the early 19th century. His favourite trick was bullet-catching, but his best remembered for pulling a rabbit from a hat. He didn’t think of the trick first, but he made it popular and there have been variations on it ever since.

Robert Houdin was born in France in 1805. He was originally trained as a clockmaker. He first appeared as a magician in Paris in 1845. He used common objects to create illusions rather than complicated pieces of machinery. He was known as the father of magic and it was from him that Harry Houdini took his name years later.

Howard Thurston was from Ohio. He started by touring and doing card tricks. In 1908 he met the magician, Harry Kellar. Kellar sold him his tricks and Thurston turned them into a 3-hour long magic show. He toured with it for over 20 years. He was well-known for illusions such as the “floating lady”.

Harry Houdini was born Erik Weisz in Budapest, Hungary. Before taking up magic, he worked in a circus. His world-wide fame came from his amazing escapes. One of his most incredible escapes was from a box that was locked, roped, weighted then lowered into water. Late in his career he went to Hollywood and made films, performing his own stunts.

David Copperfield was born in 1956 in America. He began performing at the age of twelve. He is noted for his ability to make objects disappear, something he has done frequently whilst on the air, watched by millions. He once made the Statue of Liberty, America’s most famous landmark disappear. He also walked through the Great Wall of China. From the late 1970s, he was on TV in The Magic Show of David Copperfield.

One day an____English schoolboy was taken to the headmaster___________ he didn’t do his homework. The headmaster said__ wanted the boy to be happy___________ took him to his study. He asked__boy to sit down and do absolutely nothing. He said the boy_______ watch the headmaster at work because __________wouldn't be very difficult for him. Of course the boy ___________very happy to have nothing to do. He ___________an hour doing nothing. But soon ___________began to look less pleasant. The boy looked_____ the room and at last decided to take a book that was lying _____the table near him.

But when the headmaster saw that ________stopped the boy. He said that reading __________doing something and as the boy wanted to do nothing he could ___________read.

Oxford is 0_a_ small city in 1____ centre of England. 2 ____ University of Oxford is one of 3____ most famous in the world. If you are 4____ student, it’s a great place to study. For visitors to Oxford there are a lot of things to do. You can go to museums and theatres. There are also 5____ shops, cafes and restaurants, and of course bookshops. There’s 6____ famous bookshop on Board Street. 7____ shop has thousands of books and is over 120 years old!

Summer is 8____ best time to visit Oxford. When 9____ weather is nice, you can hire 10____ boat on one of the rivers or have 11____ picnic in 12____ university parks. Oxford is also close to London so you can easily take 13____ bus or train there for the day.